Morris Minor Owners Club

No I haven't done that. Maninly because I need to stem the oil leak now.
It's leaking round the top of the canister.
I must have got the seal and order of components wrong.

Can someone let me know the correct way of fitting a new oil filter and canister.

Than I will retighten and set teh gaps again.
I'm going away tomorrow so will have nothing more to report until the weekend.
I will try tonight if someone can help

Thanks

Nick

First check - is the plate and spring present and correct under the filter element???? This is ESSENTIAL. Did you remove the old sealing ring from the filter head? Fit the new seal in to the groove with a lick of grease to hold it in place - then push the filter assembly up against the spring and turn the bolt head to engage the thread - then tighten up rotating the bowl gently as you go to engage the bowl into the seal in the rim. Then start the engine and check for leaks!

If you have removed the old seal and put a new one in you need to be aware that you can't just tighten the bolt up and expect it to seal properly.
You need to make sure either visually, or by feel, that the casing is going into it's slot and not caught up somewhere and going in cocked which will never seal no matter how tight you do it up.
This has to be one of the primary reasons that the conversion to the later filter system is so popular.

Yes, i believe I have in the following order.

Have casing in my hand. Insert long bolt. Put pring on the bolt. Put plate on top of spring (Is there a right way up??)
Put filter on plate. I have removed old sealing ring and put new on on with grease. Offer casing to filter assy. Tighten up. I've done that twice. Is there any other plate on top of filter maybe?

Is this correct? Was there a circlip/ serclip (spelling?) anywhere on the long bolt? Where does it go?

I did do a conversion on another minor I had, but my mechanic - who really does know old cars - said I shouldn't have done it.

I like spin on filters!

Ta

Nick

Under the bolt head there should be an O ring or/and a fibre washer, some filter assemblies have a cylindrical spacer with a recess in to hold the O ring which is first slid onto the bolt. The disc goes concave down. The circlip slides down the bolt last.

Some early assemblies had a circlip to keep the plate/spring etc in place - but I guess it fell foul of a 'cost saving' exercise somewhere along the way. You need to gently turn the bowl while seating it to make sure it engages the slot/seal correctly. There is nothing wrong with the screw-on filter - just an expense, and not original, but at least it prevents the loss o the plate/spring which soon results in horribly worn bearings.....

I don't know if the circlip was fitted up to the end, I imagine it was, and almost every one has more likely been 'lost', similar to beehive springs!

No -there's no location for the circlip.

There never was a location! It was/is a simple circular spring wire that just slid tightly down the bolt shaft until it met the plate

Pretty sure there was a little groove on the long bolt for it to lock in - the plate/washer/spring all trapped below. Thus they could NOT be lost. As it is tightened on to the filter head - the cicrclip rises up inside the bore of the filter element. My TR7 has exactly the same arrangement and same filter element - and a trapped circlip. But I remember it on my old 948 engined 58 Minor.

Ok - been for the 1st drive. Behaved very well.
I have sorted the oli leak. I think the plate in the filter assy was the wrong way up, so there wasn't any spring working essentially.
Since that was the 1st heat cycle, I will reset the valves and re-torque the head bolts.

Is there any need to re-torque the rocker bolts?

On 1st impressions, a MUCH improved engine that sounds right, has power (not been over 35mph yet) and isn't lumpy.

A SINCERE THANK YOU to all whe have directed my amateur fiddlings with my lovely moggie.

Got to find and fit a headlining now. Any good people in the Essex area we know of who can make a good job of that?

Thanks

Nick

Well done - tighten ALL the head nuts to 44 ft lbf - including the 4 holding down the rocker pillars - and just give the smaller nuts a tug to make sure they are tight. Then set valve gaps - 12 thou inlets and 15 thou exhausts.

Thanks bmcecosse.

Now I will sound thick, working from radiator to car, is the 1st valve an inlet or exhaust?
I assume they are alternate inlet/ exhaust after that.

Thanks

Nick

1 45 8 are exhaust 23 67 are inlets....

Thanks for the order - I would have got that wrong. Should have thought of my rules of 9, then I might have had an idea!

Out of interest why are they different settings for inlet/ exhaust? Is that normal on most engines. I have a straight 6 in a scimitar and I've always set them all the same.

Ta

Nick

They were all set 12 thou years ago.......(it even says so in the 60 year old Manual!) But then along came unleaded petrol - burns hotter and heats up the exhaust valve more. My suggestion therefore is to give the exhausts an extra 3 thou clearance to allow for the extra expansion of the hotter valve. In fact - MG/Rover specified later engines at all 15 thou - do that if you wish, but I think 12 thou is fine on the inlets. In fact after a spot of high load/high temperature misfiring in my engine during the summer - I opened up my exhausts to 18 thou. Seems to run better and no side effects.

I can see the logic of that - interesting.
While not a morris topic, what would you think on a straight 6 scimitar 2.6cc engine?
That's still leaded, so I put super in it + Tetraboost which has the lead and raises the octane.
The minor liked it too before all my engine problems (haha did it cause them?), though I used standard unleaded before the tetraboost.
Would the addative reduce the burning temp of the petrol, sinnce it contains tetraethyllead?
Thanks
Nick

Maybe - it's certainly the only additive with lead tetra-ethyl. I wouldn't bother wasting it on the Minor!!